Swedish Monarchy

Danish Monarchy Family Tree (Gorm the Old to Queen Margrethe II)
UsefulCharts | 5.XI.2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkEjcl21n8I

Alwin Priven

Could you please do a video on the Swedish monarchy? I tried looking into it and all I got was that it's descended from a french commander

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bbonner422

I’m pretty sure they have no Swedish heritage either. The king married a Brazilian woman of Portuguese and German ancestry and the king was of German and French heritage.

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Hans-Georg Lundahl

"all I got was that it's descended from a french commander"

The present dynasty, yes, but the King descends from older dynasts.

There are two or three Swedish monarchies. The present one starts out with Gustav Wasa 1520 (or 1527, forgot which year he was confirmed as king by our nobles). Carl XVI Gustaf descends from him four times over.

Earlier, there was a monarchy uniting Svealand and Götaland into Sweden and also getting baptised in 1000 AD. This one was subsumed into the Kalmar Union in the 1300's and between then and Gustav Wasa Sweden was either ruled by national dictators (Rikshöfvitsmän) or by Danes, mostly. I think there was one exception.

And before that, there was also the monarchs in Svealand who lost their kingdom and migrated over Wermland to Norway (of whom Harald Hairfair descends), they started out with Oden. Modern historiography considers them as "legendary."

Snorre and Saxo place him as near contemporary to one Danish King Froda Halfdansson, a conqueror, but Snorre makes the latter identic to and Saxo makes him different from Froda of the Peace. The latter is contemporary with Augustus. This was obviously centuries before either Ragnar Lodbrok or Gorm. Modern historiographers consider these also as "legendary".

No, the Swedish monarchy does very much NOT begin with Marshal Bernadotte. Even the constitution of 1809 is while Bernadotte was just adopted (and usurping) Crown Prince, under an usurper of previous dynasty (of which the real King was the nephew of the usurper).

Hans-Georg Lundahl

@bbonner422 "I’m pretty sure they have no Swedish heritage either. The king married a Brazilian woman of Portuguese and German ancestry and the king was of German and French heritage."

The present king descends from Gustav Eriksson Wasa four times over, and one of the lines is where a princess of the older dynasty, grand-daughter (I think) of last legitimate king of previous dynasty, married the future Gustav V (great-grandfather of the present king).

Alwin Priven

@Hans-Georg Lundahl Yes I know that the Swedish monarchy before 1818 wasn't from a french commander, I was talking about the current one.

But this is all quite interesting, like how exactly is the current monarch related to Vasa, and why was Bernadotte chosen as the heir and not someone from the previous king's family.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

@Alwin Priven The current monarchy is from 1520. You mean the current dynasty.

Your terminology is like saying British monarchy dates from 1901, when Edward VII introduced Sachsen Coburg Gotha, later known as Windsor.

"why was Bernadotte chosen as the heir and not someone from the previous king's family."

The previous king Gustav IV Adolf was exiled since 1809, after losing the Finnish War to Russia. His uncle usurped the throne, and was childless. Nearest relative to him would have been the previous king or his son. That son eventually had a daughter, granddaughter, grandniece or something marry a Bernadotte and not protest his fathers accession to the Swedish throne, this first legitimate Bernadotte was also the last anointed and crowned one, Oscar II, and his son who married the previous dynasty (which was related to Vasa) was Gustaf V.